Human rights organizations say that the Mozambican state erred in not guaranteeing the defense of demonstrators in the post-election protests, and regret that many crimes have not been documented. Nevertheless, they call on the executive to thoroughly investigate the post-election violence in the country.

In a publication by DWDuring a debate yesterday (24) in Maputo on human rights violations in the post-election period in Mozambique, the president of the National Human Rights Commission, Abashir Massacar, pointed out some excesses by both the police and the demonstrators.

"If we look at what happened at the demonstrations, we see that various rights were violated. Of course, here we can say that, on the one hand, there were some excesses on the part of the demonstrators, but there were also excesses on the part of the police," says Massacar.

Human Rights Watch doubts that the Mozambican state will be able to carry out a professional and exhaustive investigation into the violence of recent months.

According to the latest survey by the Decide platform, at least 315 people died in the post-election protests in Mozambique. More than 750 demonstrators have been shot.

For the human rights organization's researcher, Zenaida Machado, the previous government "purposely" failed to document all the crimes committed, both by the Defense and Security Forces and by the violent demonstrators. "And it hasn't because these processes of limiting rights are deliberately organized in such a way that they are not documented, because documentation facilitates the process of accountability," says Machado.

"I really have serious doubts. Even if the new government decides to investigate, or set up a commission of inquiry into what happened, it will be an inglorious and limited process due to the lack of evidence," he continued.

(Photo DR)